Big News at E3!

We had an exciting announcement at the Microsoft E3 press conference earlier today! We're bringing MASSIVE CHALICE to the Xbox One early next year! :D!

We thought we'd kick out a quick update to clear up any confusion that this might cause. Nothing has changed with our plans to bring MASSIVE CHALICE to the PC and to make it available for our backers first. YEAH! During this time we'll be porting the game to the Xbox One.

As soon as we're done porting the game, we'll launch it as a console exclusive on Xbox One. We're super stoked to have this additional support in giving MASSIVE CHALICE the next-gen console treatment!

We hope that this clears up any questions that you might have had. We'll be back with a Teamstream real soon! :D!

Sad to read this as well. I back this kind of stuff because I want it on PC. Games focused on console are invariably designed different to a native PC game, and now it's going to affect the game I thought was going to be a native PC game.

I have no problem with a Kickstarter being used to assemble a game which they then partner with someone to expand.

I do have a problem with backing a KS for a PC strategy game, and later on finding out it is being turned into a console game. Which invariably means a significantly dumbed down game with horrible UI because it was designed to be played with a controller that is virtually useless for this kind of game.

This is how people will end up not doing Kickstarters anymore, changing the project to a console game after selling me on a PC game makes me much less likely to back future projects for fear of the game being redesigned for a different market again.

Disappointing. If more money was needed for development, I'd prefer having a chance to up my contribution over having the game sucked into a console exclusive. Especially when it's the one console I'll likely ignore this generation.

Xbox1, PS4, I could really care less. The only thing I'm worried about is the statement "We're bringing MASSIVE CHALICE to the Xbox One early next year!". Early next year being the centerpoint on that. Kickstarter to me is so the Dev can take as much time as they need to make a game, no mega deadlines or anything like that. So now, Xbox is expecting their version to be released sometime early next year. What if it takes longer than that to make? I know they say PC is first, but that's my point. Are they going to rush the PC version so it can come out first, just so they can make their deadline to Microsoft? Or is Microsoft going to be really understanding if they game isn't going to be ready for them? Just scary to think about. I just don't want it to affect the PC version.

@Nathaniel Gittlen
I would be happy about this if they went on to port it for all platforms. And for the record I, and probably most others reacting to this, would be equally unhappy about it if they had announced that they would launch it exclusively on the PS4 or the WiiU. It is a matter of principle.

"we'll launch it as a console exclusive on Xbox One"

If they are to port it for console, it should go out to all consoles, at the same time. Not feeding into this halfway-under-the-table exclusivity BS, than you very much.

This leads me to think "why XBO? Did ´someone´ pay for it?"
I hope Double Fine will address the apparant negative reactions to this announcement.

People need to calm down, they're still working on the PC version we backed first and then porting it to xbox later. The interface has always been designed to be compatible with a controller anyway. Microsoft isn't coming in to steal your money, the game isn't being changed to cater to Micosoft's will.

By porting the game to xbox it will be available to a wider audience. Hopefully this will bring in more sales and allow Double Fine to make even more great games. Even if you don't have an xbox you should be happy about this deal.

I hope it's a timed exclusive on XBO at least, would love to play it on my PS4. I'm not unjustifiably angry about this news like other people though, I'm glad to help Double Fine make more crazy games, and it's not like if it doesn't come to PS4 ever it's ONLY on XBO, it's still on PC.

Really guys? You've been dissapointing me A LOT during the making of this game, but making it an XBOX ONE CONSOLE EXCLUSIVE?!
This is the last time i back a Double Fine game on Kickstarter. I'll play the game. And bear in mind, i'll tell my friends what i think about it. I was expecting more Game of Thrones, less PG13 Xbox One bullshit. Maybe i'm totally wrong, and this is gonna be the game of the year. But i'm rarely wrong. And this game is not what you made it sound like when you were asking for my money. I am REALLY dissapointed right now, and it takes a lot to stop myself from cursing at you. Save this game, somehow. Or i will never be able to trust Double Fine's decisions again.

Well, I for one am NOT super stoked about this!
Firstly, I backed a PC game. Not an XBox One game.
Secondly, I find it most disappointing that you buy into this cancer that is XB vs. PS lock-in. I did NOT back this game so that Microsoft could get itself another of these reprehensible exclusivity schemes!
These arrangements are nothing but bad for the industry, so either you port it to all consoles (PS4, WiiU, XBO), or you forego them all.

@peter The difference is they didn't ask for our money to 'kickstart' grim fandango. If they fund the game they can sell it on whatever platforms they like. But they didn't fund Massive Chalice, we did!
My personal opinion is that exclusivity is a bad thing for the industry and I won't fund any KS campaign that supports it (my money, my right).
So my complaint is that Massive chalice should have either have said up front that they would be open to console exclusivity to give backers an informed choice.

@Paul Stachniak - No great fan of exclusivity myself, but it is DF's call to make. I assume they wouldn't discuss it here first for marketing reasons, they wanted to make a splash at E3 with the news...

@VkBest - As Peter said, beyond what they promised to deliver here I don't think we can expect to control what they do with the game. You could make the case that we should have some say in what is done with the money we gave them, but I would assume that Microsoft would be providing the funds for this part of the process...

I think my biggest issue with this move is that we the backers weren't told about the possibility first (I mean when the deal came up - not when the kickstarter began). i certainly didn't kickstart this game to then be shut out of a PS4 copy down the line. I'm all for a console version, I'm all for all consoles being supported. thi exclusivity rubs me the wrong way, sorry.

Its probally funded partly by Microsoft if its exclusive anyhow. If not then meh its there money to make a game, as long as i get what was offered for the money I gave I'll be happy :) also if its not XBONE exclusive deal then get in on PS4 please because who buys XBONEs anyhow :P

@VkBest And nothing on kickstarter says they can't do anything with the product after they deliver their promises. And they didn't promise a console release at all. Now they got some extra money to port it to the xbox one. This site was to give developers free reign over their product not being complained about by backers when a developer uses some extra money to make better product or more platforms.

@Peter, Grim Fandango was not backed here, that is a big difference, I´m not care about games who I didn't back it, but making exclusive a game who was backed for community I don´t think that is morally right. Would be different if they would asked us and we are agree. Besides, I´m sure Grim Fandango will be ported to PC.

Anyway I´m not backing more, lately I don´t like some practices in this site.

What a complainers. Sony did the same with grim fandango and sony exclusives often also means it doesn't come on PC. If microsoft didn't pay for console conversion which includes an exclusivity deal for consoles massive chalice probably wouldn't have come to consoles at all. So this is always a bigger market for doublefine then not doing this deal.

Honestly I'm a bit disappointed it's coming to consoles because that means the games interface has to be simplified to work with a controller sitting on a couch across the room from the screen. That's only a minor point though and maybe the controls were already pretty simple anyway so it won't make much of a difference. I'm much more disappointed in it being a "console exclusive". It's not an anti-MS thing, I'd be equally disappointed if it were a PS4 console exclusive. If you want to bring the game to consoles, fine, if you don't have the resources to port it to more than one I can even understand that but to say this game WILL NOT be ported to other consoles is a pretty crappy position to take.

@Ruinaes - XBOX had plenty of RPGs, too. Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, Witcher, a little game called Mass Effect. I don't have an XBone or PS4, but it doesn't shock me to see this on XBox. The 360 had a good spread of content.

Someone else brought up an interesting point too. I wonder if DF got something big out of this...like rights to Iron Brigade. That would be awesome

*** First of all, I'm ok with the console release as long as it does not impact the development or backer feedback. I would hate to think that backers become less important because you now have the big-wigs to answer to. This console release will simply increase exposure.

*** This is not the newest Crytek engine we are talking about, so anyone who has proclaimed PC superiority is just being childish. It's 2014, any current/next gen console can play this as well as any PC made in the last 5 years.

*** My one real question... Why Xbox One? Both Microsoft and Sony have given a lot of love and attention to independant devs. However, we are talking about a game which is a deep, strategic RPG. Why would this not be on PS4? Everything about this game screams to the majority of the PS player base for years now. While PC gets a little of everything, RPG and SPRG fans have always been much heavier on the Sony platforms. This makes me feel as if there is some other incentive given. As a backer, I would be curious to know how this worked out.

A black day certainly. I had high hopes for the game, but I guess I'll have to throw them to the rubbish bin. I wish I had paid more attention on this consolization business, but I guess I'm to blame for being fooled. I was listening to the E3 microsoft blurb and I was shocked when they mentioned Massive Chalice. I thought it was some misunderstanding. Sigh.

Refund demands - really?! They promised PC/Mac/Linux. That's what you backed. That's what we're getting and we're still getting it first. Being a backer doesn't give us the right to tell them how to run their studio or dictate the future of the product beyond what they promised. If they axed the PC version in favor of the console version, I'd understand the angst, but give me a break already. You're getting what you donated for. Let Brad and Tim run their own studio ffs.

Those complaining about the possibility of Massive Chalice being 'dumbed down' for consoles: the game has always been designed with controller support in mind (as Brad posted in October 2013 on the Double Fine forums: http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/10303/). If anything, the (potential) extra money that comes with this deal is probably a good thing for the PC version.

Console versions was always a possibility, it's even mentioned in the FAQ on the main page, so saying that making a console version is a betrayal etc. of the original project or outside the scope, is at best ignorant, at worst simply stupid.

But as many others, I would like to know whether we backers can get the XB1-version instead of the PC-version (knowing I'll have to wait longer for the game)?

The Problem is not that its ported to an xbox or playstation, if you want to game on a very old pc you can do that too. The problem is more that they might change the game to be able to played with a controller, that change might affect the pc version too and that is the bad news. Its dumbing down of controls like in mass effect 3 for example. Where they get clunky cause you use the same key for 3 diffrent things, you get less skills cause you have fewer buttons etc etc.
So hope they give us all for the pc as promised and if you cannot really play it on a console .. tough luck for them. Inferiour Hardware -> Inferior Game

That's a pretty bizarro definition of "worse". Steam have never had an absolute monopoly - there've always been alternative vendors. That other platforms exist and are profitable (Steam, Origin, Battle.net, UPlay, GOG, Desura Humble Store, Gameolith, etc. are all more than surviving) goes very much against what you seem to be saying.

Consumers are free to buy from other vendors. Developers are free to deploy on other distribution platforms. If some choose not to, then that's their loss, but the key thing is that there's no contractual obligation preventing them if they change their mind. There's no culture of developers budgeting for and depending on these sorts of deals which limit their ability to reach broader audiences.

Ok great, I would much rather have the team focus on the PC version, after that is complete feel free to port to every platform known to man. Just do me a huge favor and don't split this game into multiple parts, still not happy about that decision.

All these people who want a refund. The game you funded was going on PC, and it's still going on PC. Any "bribery" cash is for "Hey put this on Xbone console only please" not "Dumb this down into a third person cover based shooter that runs at 20 FPS"